Air beds have become an increasingly popular sleeping system. Thus, it appears that the "Air Sleep System" manufactured by the Select Comfort Corporation of Minneapolis, Minn. is purchased by at least about 50,000 consumers per year in the United States. At least three other manufacturers sell comparable air sleep systems.
The "Air Sleep System" sold by Select Comfort Corporation utilizes an air mattress described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,908,895 of Robert A. Walker. This air mattress is comprised of a top wall, a bottom wall spaced from and located below the top wall, side walls and end walls secured to said top and bottom walls, all of said walls comprising flexible air impervious sheet members sealed together along the edge portions thereof to form a chamber for accommodating air under pressure, seam means securing adjacent portions of the sheet means together, a pair of longitudinal first support means located in said chamber extended between said end walls adjacent the side walls and secured to said top and bottom walls providing longitudinal passages accommodating air, a plurality of transverse second support means located in said chamber extended between said pair of first support means and secured to said top and bottom walls providing transverse passages for accommodating air, said first and second support means limiting outward expansion of the top and bottom walls when air under pressure is stored in said chamber; each of said first and second support means having a continuous web section and opposite end portions, an opening adjacent each of said end portions allowing air communication between said transverse and longitudinal passages, the opposite end portions of said first support means longitudinally spaced from said end walls, and the opposite end portions of said second support means laterally spaced from the web sections of the first support means to provide said openings, first tube means mounted in the seam means in one end of the air mattress to facilitate supplying air under pressure to said chamber, an elongated flexible and elastic tube connected to the first tube means and adapted to be connected to a supply of air under pressure to selectively carry air under pressure to said chamber and retained under pressure within said tube, and second tube means mounted in the seam means in a second end of the air mattress, and air pressure relief valve means connected to said second tube means in communication with said chamber and atmosphere whereby air is vented from said chamber through said valve means when the pressure of the air within the chamber exceeds a selected maximum limit. The entire disclosure of this Walker patent is hereby incorporated by reference into this specification.
Similar air mattresses are contained in the air sleep systems sold by other manufacturers. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,394,784 of Gerald R. Swenson et al., U.S. Pat. Des. No. 300,194 of Robert A. Walker, and the like. The disclosure of each of these United States patents is hereby incorporated by reference into this specification.
The aforementioned "Air Sleep System," and the aforementioned comparable air sleep systems, also utilize a motordriven impeller which is disposed outside of said air bed and is connected to the air mattress by tubing. In the use of such air sleep systems, it is common to locate the impeller beneath the air bed on the floor below it together with the appropriate control mechanisms. When the user wishes to adjust the firmness of the mattress, he may reach to the floor, pick up the control, activate the impeller, and either deliver or release air from the mattress.
Air may be released from the "Air Sleep System" by moving the control in one direction and activating only the relief valve. Air may be inserted into the "Air Sleep System" by moving the control in another direction and activating both the motor-driven impeller and the relief valve.
The motor driven impeller is excessively noisy; it is similar in design to a vacuum cleaner motor, and it is equally offensively loud. This often causes a problem when one user, during the middle of the night, decides to adjust the firmness of such an "Air Sleep System." It has been reported that many domestic quarrels have been caused by an unsuspecting spouse suddenly being awakened by the sound of such a motor-driven impeller.
Furthermore, in addition to creating an unseemly amount of noise, it is often difficult to gain access to the relatively large motor driven impeller unit, especially after it has been coated with several layers of dust under the bed. Furthermore, the location of wires, hoses, and a motor driven impeller under the air bed creates cleaning problems under the bed, is inconvenient to use with certain types of headboard and bed assemblies, and often is aesthetically displeasing.
In many hospital settings, beds are used where the head of the bed is movable from a horizontally up to a vertical or substantially vertical position. The need for external wires, tubes, and pumps in the "Air Sleep System" renders such system impractical for such a use.
For any or all of these reasons, and notwithstanding the fact that Select Comport Corporation reportedly is spending millions of dollars in direct mail advertising, the Select Comfort "Air Sleep System" has met with a substantial amount of consumer resistance. Select Comfort Corporation sells their system with a money-back guarantee, and it appears that at least about ten percent of the systems so sold are returned. It appears that the majority of the systems so returned are returned because the motor-driven impeller is too noisy and/or too bulky and/or inconvenient to use.
The prior art has disclosed the Select Comfort "Air Sleep System," and similar airbeds, must be used in conjunction with an external air source. Initial prior art designs involving an internal air source were abandoned in favor of later designs with an external air source, and such later designs have been in use in the industry since at least as early as 1983.
In 1980, U.S. Pat. No. 4,224,706 was issued to Gary A. Young et al. on an application filed in Oct. 16, 1978. This patent disclosed a bed assembly comprised of internal bellows within the foundation for an mattress. The bellows were connected to a rod 112 which, in turn, was connected to a handle 114. At column 4 of this patent, at lines 63 et seq., it was disclosed that "An electric motor can be coupled to the rod 112 in place of handle 114. Such an electric motor could be supported within or outside of the support structure 12."
The design of this patent presented several practical difficulties. The bellows assembly used was relatively large and, thus, had to be disposed within the foundation for the airbed and could not be incorporated within the airbed itself. Consequently, because at least about forty percent of all airbeds are sold without foundations (and are adapted to be used with a consumer's existing foundation), the design of U.S. Pat. No. 4,224,706 could not be sold to large segments of the airbed mattress industry.
On Nov. 14, 1979, Gary A. Young et al. filed another patent application on the design first disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,224,706; this latter application issued as U.S. Pat. No. 4,306,322 on Dec. 22, 1981. At lines 12-15 of column 5 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,306,322, it is also disclosed that "An electric motor can be coupled to the rod 112 in the place of the handle 114. Such an electric motor could be supported within or outside of the support structure 12."
The airbeds disclosed in Young et al.'s U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,224,706 and 4,306,322 were never marketed by the assignee of such patents, Dial-A-Firm, Inc.; the design of these airbeds was impractical, expensive, and unappealing to consumers. Prior to July of 1981, Dial-A-Firm, Inc. went bankrupt.
A new company (Dial-A-Firm International, Inc.) was formed by Gary A. Young et al. prior to July of 1981, and on Jul. 8, 1981 a new patent application was filed on an "Air Bed with Firmness Control"; this application was issued as U.S. Pat. No. 4,394,784 on Jul. 26, 1983.
The air bed system of U.S. Pat. No. 4,394,784 is comprised of (1) an air bladder confined within a mattress, (2) an air blower having an intake to atmospheric air and having an exhaust to atmospheric air and having a pressurized air outlet, (3) an air line connected to the pressurized air outlet and connected to the air bladder, (4) an air valve interposed in the air line for selectively opening and closing air flow therethrough, (5) means for actuating the air valve for opening air flow through the air line and for energizing the air blower, and (6) means for actuating the air valve for opening air flow through the air line and for deenergizing the air blower. The entire disclosure of this patent is hereby incorporated by reference into this specification.
The design of U.S. Pat. No. 4,394,784 revolutionized the air bed industry. Every air bed sold since 1983 with an inflation system is described by the claims of this patent.
However, it is clearly disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,394,784 that, with the design of such patent, an external air source must be used. Thus, at lines 44-47 of column 1 of the patent, it is disclosed that "The present invention utilizes an air mattress assembly of a particular and preferred construction, in combination with an externally energized and powered air pressure source."
One reason that the air bedding system of U.S. Pat. No. 4,394,784 (and, in addition, all air bedding systems sold since 1983 with an air inflation system) utilizes an external powered air pressure source is that, when one desires to increase the firmness of the air mattress, air must flow into the mattress at a sufficiently high rate so the increase in firmness will occur within a reasonably short period of time. A consumer will not want to wait fifteen minutes for the firmness of a mattress to be adjusted but will want such adjustment to occur within a matter of seconds.
In order to produce the required flow rate, all of the air bed systems sold since 1983 use an external pump which is relatively large and bulky. In general, the minimum dimension of such external pumps is at least 6 inches. Thus, because of their size, these pumps cannot readily be incorporated within air mattresses, which generally have widths of less than four inches.
Furthermore, in addition to being too large, the pumps which produce a sufficient amount of air flow are also very noisy. Even if these pumps could be incorporated within the air mattresses, the noise produced during their operation would offend most consumers, many of whom are on the mattress while it is being inflated.
It is an object of this invention to provide an air sleep system which contains pump means disposed within the air bed. However, several problems are presented with such a design.
In the first place, if air pumps currently used with air beds were to be reduced in size so that they could fit within the bed, they would not have enough power to generate the desired air flow within a reasonable period of time.
In the second place, even if the air pumps currently used with air beds could be reduced in size so that they could fit within the air mattress while still producing enough power, they would have to be operated at relatively high speeds to produce such power and, thus, would produce even more unacceptable noise than is being produced by the currently unacceptable host of air mattress pumps.
The problems associated with a redesign of air mattress pumps are illustrated by U.S. Pat. No. 4,829,616. In 1989, in his U.S. Pat. No. 4,829,616, Robert A. Walker attempted to provide a reciprocating diaphragm pump which would improve upon the operation of the impeller pumps then (and now) being used with air sleep systems; see, e.g., FIG. 2 of such patent and lines 37 et seq. of Column 5 thereof. However, the reciprocating diaphragm pump of this Walker patent (and of corresponding Walker U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,890,344 and 4,897,890) was still unacceptably noisy and never was put to commercial use.
There was an additional problem with the reciprocating diaphragm pump of the Walker patents. Whereas air flow from the prior art impeller pumps automatically decreases as pressure within the air mattress is increased, such is not the case with the Walker diaphragm pumps; and, absent some sort of safety release valve, there was a danger of overinflation and destruction of the air mattress. Furthermore, because of its relatively bulky size, the Walker diaphragm pumps could not be disposed within conventional air mattresses.
It is an object of this invention to provide an air bedding system comprised of a diaphragm pump which can be used to inflate an air mattress and which, during such inflation, will operate readily quickly and quietly.
It is an object of this invention to provide an air sleep system comprised of a pump which is disposed within an air bed.
It is another object of this invention to provide an air sleep system which is relatively quiet when it is being used to inflate the air core of the system.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide an air sleep system which automatically prevents overinflation of the air core during the time air is being supplied to such core.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide an air sleep system which is relatively inexpensive to produce.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide an air sleep system which, when one user moves upon the mattress comprising said system, air is not transversely transferred to another portion of the mattress to thus disturb another user.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide an air sleep system whose controls are mounted on at least one side of the air bed.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide an air sleep system whose controls are detachably mounted on at least one side of the air bed.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide an air sleep system which may be controlled by a remote control device;
It is yet another object of this invention to provide an air sleep system comprised of an air pump which can readily be connected or disconnected from an air mattress.